The first cantata (though not a church cantata) on this CD is actually a
Funeral Ode for Queen Christiane Eberhardine of Saxony performed on 17 October
1727. She was a Protestant in an arranged marriage with the Elector Frederick
August, who for purely political purposes had converted to Catholicism back
in May 1697 in order to annex the Polish throne. The pious and reclusive
Queen Christiane was exceedingly popular with the people of Leipzig, and
on her death on 5 September 1727 they decided to hold a memorial service
for which Bach was commissioned to write the music. He produced a magnificent
cantata in two parts (divided at the occasion by a spoken eulogy), the highlight
of which is a miraculous recitative (track 4) to depict tolling funeral bells,
followed by a wistful aria for alto accompanied by gambas and lutes commemorating
the courage of the late Queen. The work concludes with a charming, dancing
choral gigue, the populace celebrating the life of their benefactress. All
involved give committed performances, in particular Gabriele Schreckenbach's
breath control arouses much admiration in the long-breathed phrases in her
aria for alto, in which the great man almost seems to have forgotten the
capabilities of the human frame.

The solo cantata BWV 199 was probably written between 1713 and 1714 and is
full of distinctly expressive music beautifully sung by the late Arleen
Augér from the first recitative which takes its text from the title.
The miracle of this cantata lies in its emotional journey beginning in the
depths of despair ('My heart is swimming in blood') but concluding joyfully
('How happy is my heart'). Augér's declamatory style of singing recitative
is a lesson to all young singers for its power of communication. Despite
her excellent clarity of diction one neither needs to know what she is singing
about nor understand the German text itself, her voice says it all. Her purity
of tone and accuracy of intonation is revelatory, the blend of sound which
she achieves in her first aria 'Stumme Seufzer' with oboist Ingo Goritzki
and in the chorale 'Ich dein betrubtes Kind' the violist Hans Eurich both
masterful. Recorded at the height of her vocal powers ten years before her
untimely death in 1993, this is a fitting testament to her extraordinarily
lovely Bach singing (it was Mozart's music with which she was particularly
associated but the results here are no less beautiful), the astounding moment
before the recapitulation of the aria 'Tief gebuckt und voller Reue' (track
14) nothing short of heart-stopping. If you buy this disc for that moment
alone you would not have wasted your money.

Only one aria survives as a fragment of Cantata BWV 200; it was only discovered
as late as 1924 and published in 1935. Written for two solo violins and alto
(not soprano as stated in the booklet's text), Mechthild Georg sounds rather
perfunctory and lacklustre after the joys of Augér but chronology
defines the placement of this short aria at the end of a highly recommended
recording